Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror was a phase of the French Revolution that occurred from 5 September 1793 to 28 July 1794, seeing the official executions of 16,594 people from June 1793 to July 1794; from 1793 to 1796, 450,000 people were killed in the Vendee region of France during a royalist insurrection there. The Reign of Terror began after the liberal Jacobin Club decided to purge France of counter-revolutionaries as foreign armies invaded the country, and the Jacobins had King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie-Antoinette of France guillotined to symbolically end the monarchy. Over the following months, the revolutionary government would condemn thousands to death for a variety of crimes, ranging from being conservative counter-revolutionaries/monarchists to not being enthusiastic enough about the revolution. The nobility and Catholic clergy were major targets, while suspected royalists were also sentenced to death in public guillotine executions. The Committee of Public Safety, led by Maximilien Robespierre, took over France and proclaimed a de facto dictatorship. The moderate Girondists were also targeted by the Jacobins, and the Jacobins began to execute all enemies of the club. In July 1794, the people of France turned against Robespierre after it became apparent that the madness would never stop, and Robespierre was arrested by the National Convention and executed by guillotine. In the Thermidorian Reaction, the Jacobins were overthrown, and the Jacobins were annihilated.